Tamper resistant, child resistant cap and spout assembly

ABSTRACT

A cap assembly is fitted to a bottleneck, and is provided with a sleeve for fitting to the bottleneck. The sleeve is provided with a non-drip pouring spout whereby the liquid can be poured from the bottle through the sleeve and spout. A closure cap member is fitted to the sleeve in a secure manner. Before a cap portion of the closure cap member can be removed to permit the pouring of the liquid, a tear band must first be removed from the closure cap member, thereby providing tamper resistance. Additionally, the cap portion must be aligned with the sleeve before it can be removed, thereby providing child resistance.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to the provision of improved closure capassemblies specially designed to fit bottles with necks of knownstandard outer shape.

2. Description of the Related Art

At present many products, especially liquids, are sold in such standardglass bottles using what may be called a standard snap-on tamperresistant such as, for example, our well known JAYCAP (Registered TradeMark) closure. Among products being offered for sale in that way aresome products that could be toxic to small children and as a result ademand has appeared for the provision of a suitable tamper resistant andchild resistant closure for use with a standard glass bottle. Ourexperiments showed that a suitable closure could be made but a modifiedneck profile was required on the standard bottle. Modification of thebottle would be very unwelcome because standard glass bottles are madeand sold in millions and considerable expense would be involved inmodification of existing machinery.

At this stage an additional requirement appeared on the scene due to thefact that some customers asked whether it would be possible to provide anon-drip pouring facility which is not available on standard bottles.This was required because some liquids tended to run or dribble down theoutside of the bottle which thereby became unpleasant to handle. Itbecame clear therefore that what was really required was a tamperresistant and child resistant closure for use with existing standardbottles and the provision of a non-drip capability for the bottles. Thiswas achieved by the use of a closure assembly using the combination ofan adapter and closure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention there is provided a closure capassembly which has tamper resistant and child resistant features and isadapted to be applied to the neck of a bottle, the assembly comprising asleeve adaptor which has a pouring spout and which is for application tothe bottle neck whilst enabling the bottle to be discharged through theadaptor sleeve, and a closure member which in use engages the adaptorsleeve to close the bottle.

Also, according to the invention there is provided a closure capassembly which has a tamper resistant feature and is adapted to beapplied to the neck of a bottle, the assembly comprising a sleeveadaptor which has a pouring spout and which is for application to thebottle neck whilst enabling the bottle to be discharged through theadaptor sleeve, and a closure member which in use engages the adaptorsleeve to close the bottle.

The invention also provides a closure cap assembly which has a childresistant feature and is adapted to be applied to the neck of a bottle,the assembly comprising a sleeve adaptor which has a pouring spout andwhich is for application to the bottle neck whilst enabling the bottleto be discharged through the adaptor sleeve, and a closure member whichin use engages the adaptor sleeve to close the bottle.

The invention further provides a closure cap assembly which has tamperresistant and child resistant features and is adapted to be applied tothe neck of a bottle, the assembly comprising a sleeve adaptor which isfor application to the bottle neck whilst enabling the bottle contentsto be discharged through the adaptor sleeve and a closure member whichin use engages the adaptor sleeve to close the bottle, and wherein thesleeve adaptor has an outer profile shaped to receive the closure memberso that a cap portion of the closure member cannot be removed until atear band of the closure member which engages the profile is torn fromthe closure member, the tear band forming the tamper resistant feature.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

In order that the invention and its various aspects may be more clearlyunderstood reference is now directed to the accompanying drawings givenby way of example and in which:

FIG. 1 is a part longitudinal sectional view of the assembly;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the assembly;

FIG. 3 is a front elevation of the assembly with the cap part shown inFIG. 2 assembled in random fashion;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the thumb tab and tear tab;

FIG. 5 is a view from the underside of the thumb tab and tear tab shownin FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a view of a neck profile of a standard bottle used inassociation with our standard Jaycap tamper resistant closure; and

FIGS. 7A, 7B, and 7C show various views of the sleeve adaptor to anenlarged seal.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to the drawings, and especially to FIG. 1, the closure capassembly comprises a sleeve adaptor indicated generally at 31 and aclosure member indicated generally at 12. The sleeve adaptor 31 isapplied to the neck of a bottle by downward axial pressure so that, whenin operative position, the sleeve adaptor 31 embraces the neck of thebottle, the top of which is accommodated within an arcuate recess 33. Asshown, the sleeve adaptor 31 externally has an arcuate non-drip pouringspout 34, a relatively long arcuate projecting bead 35 with a relativelyshort arcuate gap 36, a tamper resistant band seating 37, an arcuateretaining bead 38, a captive band seating 37¹, a ledge 39 and anindicating arrow 40 which is shown more clearly in FIG. 3. Internallythe sleeve adaptor 31 is shaped to provide, the recess 33, a plug 41 toenter the mouth of the bottle and three circumferential sealingprojections 42.

The closure member 12 of the assembly comprises three parts, a cap part12¹ at the top, a tamper resistant tear band 13 in the middle and acaptive band 14 at the bottom. The cap part 12¹ has a top 15 and anannular depending skirt 16. The cap part 12¹ also has a relatively shortarcuate internal lug 17 to engage below the arcuate external projectingbead 35 on the sleeve adaptor 31 so that when the lug 17 and theprojecting bead 35 are in engagement the cap part 12¹ cannot be removedeven if the tamper resistant band 13 has been torn away. The relativelyshort arcuate gap 36 is slightly longer than the lug 17 on the cap partand rotation of the cap part 12¹ is required until the lug 17 disengagesfrom the bead 35 to free the cap part 12¹ for removal (after tearingaway the tamper resistant band 13). When the lug 17 disengages from thebead 35 it registers with the gap 36 so that upward pressure on aserrated thumb tab 43 on the skirt 16 can lever the cap part 12¹ off thebottle. The thumb tab 43 may be used to assist in rotation of the cappart 12¹ but is provided mainly to facilitate removal of the cap part.Gripping knurls 20 are also provided on the outside of the skirt 16 forrotating the cap part. The tamper resistant band 13 seats on the tamperresistant band seating 37 and is connected to the skin 16 of the cappart 12¹ and to the captive band 14 respectively by lines of weakness21, 22. The captive band 14 has a recess into which the retaining bead38 projects and the captive band seats on the captive band seating 37¹.The tamper resistant band is provided with a tear tab 23 to assistremoval by a user.

The closure cap assembly is made, preferably by moulding, from resilientplastics material so that the closure 12 can be pushed downwardly intooperative position over the sleeve adaptor 31. During the downwardmovement the bands 13 and 14 and the skirt 16 deform outwardly and thenspring back into the position shown in FIG. 1, so that when in operativeposition the cap part 12¹ cannot be removed until the tamper resistantband 13 has been torn away because the retaining bead 38 prevents upwardmovement of the closure 12 as a whole including the cap part 12¹ and ifthe tamper resistant band 13 be removed by an unauthorised person thefact that it has been removed is obvious due to the absence of thetamper resistant band especially if the cap part and the adaptor aremoulded in contrasting color.

To open the bottle for the first time it is necessary to grip the tab 23and to tear away the tamper resistant band 13 leaving the captive band14 in position. The cap part can then be angularly displaced to free thelug 17 from the projecting bead 35, i.e. by moving the lug 17 intoregistration with the gap 36 after which the cap part 12¹ can be removedby an upward push on the tab 43.

An appropriate indication is provided so that an adult user will knowwhen the cap part has been turned into the correct position for removal.This can be done by providing the upward pointing arrow 40 on the outersurface of the lower part of the sleeve adaptor, the arrow 40 beingpositioned so as to point directly to the middle of the gap 36 in thearcuate projecting bead 35 and by providing a downwardly pointing arrowshaped thumb tab 43 on the skirt of the cap part 13 to indicate theposition of the lug 17. With this arrangement a user simply has to lineup the two arrows, after tearing away the tamper resistant band, tobring the cap part into position for removal by pushing upwardly on thearrow shaped thumb tab 43 which also forms a push tab. To prevent thecap part being pushed too far down on to the sleeve adaptor the cap partis provided internally with a plurality, in this case six, equallyspaced webs 44 which abut against the spout 34 if the cap part tends togo too far down.

It will be appreciated that when in operative position on the bottle theclosure assembly stands proud of the top of the bottle which isaccommodated in the annular recess 33 so that in fact the cap part 12¹of the closure 12 is completely above the bottle.

The underlying idea of the invention is to use the special sleeve to fiton to and embrace the standard bottle neck and externally to provide aprofile that cooperates with the closure 12 to provide tamper resistant,tamper resistant and non-drip features.

Although we have referred above to glass bottles only, the invention mayalso be applied in connection with bottles of plastics material.

The closure assembly described above is both tamper resistant and childresistant when first applied to a standard bottle and is child resistantwhen the cap part of the closure assembly is replaced on the bottle,care being taken to ensure that the lug 17 is out of registration withthe gap 36.

As shown in FIG. 6 the external neck profile of a standard bottle has arounded annular upper projection 2, an annular recess 3, a lower annularprojection 4 that is nose shaped in section, and an annular recessedportion 5 which merges into the body of the bottle.

I claim:
 1. A closure cap assembly for application to a bottle of thetype having a bottle neck with an open end, the closure cap assemblycomprising:(a) a sleeve adaptor having a first portion for engaging withthe open end of the bottle neck and a second portion having a pouringspout, said first and second portions being arranged substantiallycoaxially on axially opposite sides of a coaxial radial web portion,said first portion being provided with an outer sleeve portion and aninner sleeve portion which are spaced substantially concentrically withrespect to said radial web portion which couples the inner and outersleeve portions to one another, whereby said inner sleeve portion, saidouter sleeve portion, and said radial web portion form an annular recessfor accommodating sealingly the open end of the bottle neck when saidsleeve adaptor is applied thereto, said second portion being furtherprovided with a radially outwardly projecting head arranged intermediateof said pouring spout and said radial web; and (b) a closure cap havinga closure portion, a skirt, a tear band, and a captive band, said tearband being removably coupled to said skirt and said captive band, saidclosure cap being removably installed on said sleeve adaptor by pushfitting whereby said captive band and said tear band seat on said outersleeve portion, said outer sleeve portion being configured to have aninterengaging surface contour which interengages with a correspondingsurface contour on an interior surface of said captive band, saidinterengaged captive band and sleeve adaptor preventing said captiveband from being removed from said sleeve adaptor in response to theapplication of a pulling force in a direction axially away from thebottle neck, said skirt being further provided with an inwardlyprojecting lug which engages between said outwardly projecting bead onsaid second portion of said sleeve adaptor and said radial web, saidoutwardly projecting bead presenting a gap of arcuate extent greaterthan said inwardly projecting lug whereby said inwardly projecting lug,said outwardly projecting bead, and said gap form a child resistantfeature, whereby said closure portion and said skin of said closure capcan only be removed to enable the bottle contents to be removed from thebottle via said pouting spout after said tear band has been removed, andafter said closure cap has been rotated until said inwardly projectinglug aligns with said gap of said outwardly projecting bead.
 2. A closurecap assembly according to claim 1, wherein said interengaging surfacecontour of said sleeve adaptor has an outer profile shaped to engagewith said captive band of said closure cap so that said closure portionof said closure cap cannot be removed until said tear band is tom fromsaid closure cap, said tear band forming a tamper resistant securityfeature.
 3. A closure cap assembly according to claim 2, wherein saidclosure portion of said closure cap engages exclusively said secondportion of said sleeve adaptor whereby said closure portion and saidsleeve adaptor must be rotated with respect to one another to be inpredetermined alignment before said closure portion, after tearing awayof said tear band, can be removed, thereby forming a child resistantsecurity feature.
 4. A closure cap assembly according to claim 2,wherein said closure portion of said closure cap is completely removablefrom said sleeve adaptor after said tear band has been torn away.
 5. Aclosure cap assembly according to claim 1 wherein said pouring spout insaid second portion of said sleeve adaptor is a non-drip spout.
 6. Aclosure cap assembly for providing tamper resistant and child resistantfeatures to a bottle of the type having a bottle neck, the closure capassembly being of the type which is installed at an opening at thebottle neck for selectably closing the bottle, the closure cap assemblycomprising:a sleeve adaptor installed on the bottle neck for enablingany contents of the bottle to be discharged through said sleeve adaptor,said sleeve adaptor having a first portion for engaging with the bottleneck and a coaxial second portion for forming a pouring spout, saidfirst portion having a predetermined outer profile shape, and saidsecond portion being located axially remote from said bottle neck andbeing provided with a radially outward projecting bead arranged betweenthe pouring spout and said first portion; a closure member for engagingsaid sleeve adaptor in a region thereof which is axially distal from thebottle neck for closing the bottle, said sleeve adaptor having an outerprofile shaped to receive said closure member, said closure memberhaving an end portion and a depending annular skin, said skirt beingprovided with an inwardly projecting lug which engages between saidoutwardly projecting bead on said second portion of said sleeve adaptorand said first portion of said sleeve adaptor, said outwardly projectingbead presenting a gap of arcuate extent greater than said inwardlyprojecting lug, whereby said inwardly projecting lug, said outwardlyprojecting bead, and said gap form the child resistant feature; and atear band removably coupled to said closure member and saidpredetermined outer profile shape of said first portion of said sleeveadaptor, said closure member being unremovable from said second portionof said sleeve adaptor until after said tear band is torn from saidclosure member, said tear band forming the tamper resistant feature,whereby said closure portion and said skirt of said closure member canonly be removed to enable any bottle contents to be removed from thebottle via said pouring spout after said tear band has been removed, andafter said closure member has been rotated until said inwardlyprojecting lug aligns with said gap of said outwardly projecting bead.7. A closure cap assembly according to claim 6, wherein said firstportion of said sleeve adaptor comprises a sleeve having an inwardlyturned end defining an annular recess in which an end of the bottle necksealingly engages when said sleeve adaptor is applied to the bottle. 8.A closure cap assembly according to claim 6, wherein said sleeve adaptorand said closure member are formed of plastic material.